Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head To Akron For MAC Championships
October 30, 2003 | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 30, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University cross country teams will head to Northeast Ohio for Saturday's (Nov. 1) Mid-American Conference Championships. The league meet, hosted by the University of Akron, will be held at the Mayfair Country Club in nearby Green, Ohio.
DIRECTIONS TO THE COURSE
Take the Ohio Turnpike (I-80/90) to Exit 180
Take Interstate-77 South to Exit 118 (Massillon Rd.)
Turn left and proceed approx. 1/4 mile to Raber Rd.
Turn right onto Raber Rd. The Mayfair C.C. entrance
will be approx. one mile ahead, on the left.
The women's race, 5,000 meters in length, will start the day at 11:00 a.m., with the men's 8K race following at noon. An awards ceremony to recognize the individual and team champions will take place on the Mayfair Country Club terrace at approximately 1:30 p.m.
The Falcon men's and women's teams of head coach Cami Wells have been idle from competition since the Illini Challenge on Oct. 18, and Wells feels that her Falcon squads are ready for the conference meet.
"The teams are focused and ready to go. We are just focusing on getting the most out of each person on Saturday. Our goal is for all of our runners to walk away knowing they gave everything they had during the race, and having no regrets."
The Falcon women placed ninth in last year's MAC Championships, hosted by Miami University, while the BGSU men were 11th. The BG women were picked to place seventh in Saturday's race by the web site mactrack.net.
The Falcons will be part of a field that will feature over 200 runners from 13 men's teams and 12 women's teams, including 2002 defending team champions Central Michigan (men's) and Toledo (women's). Also in the field will be 2002 MAC men's champion and All-American Gavin Thompson of Eastern Michigan.
Senior Amber Culp was the Falcons' top finisher last year, placing 22nd among individuals at the MAC meet. Culp has been BG's top placer in each of the last 13 meets, dating to early in the 2002 season.
For the Falcon men, only two runners on the active squad -- juniors Kris Lachowski and Patrick Maynard -- ran in last year's race. Steve Blasko also competed in 2002, but is sitting out the '03 campaign due to injury.
"The MAC meet is our most important meet of the year," said Wells. "The whole season is basically a preparation for this meet. The hard work has been put in at this point, and we are now in the process of tapering and getting mentally prepared for the race."
The men's tentative travel squad includes senior Jake Smith, juniors Lachowski, Maynard and Steve Vairetta, and freshmen Vivien Briard, Edwin Cheruiyot, Edgar Ramirez and Jeff Wright. All but Lachowski and Maynard are in their first season with the Falcons.
Ramirez and Cheruiyot each have led the Falcons in three races this season, while Maynard was the first BG runner to cross the finish line in the home dual meet vs. Toledo (Sept. 5). Cheruiyot has paced the Brown and Orange in each of the last three races.
For the women, the tentative travel party includes seniors Culp and Leighann Kramer, junior Melissa Krueger, sophomores Leslie Carden, Emily Jackson and Caroline Kipchaba and freshmen Bridget Dalic, Andrea Pollack and Kim Settle.
Culp, obviously, has been the top BGSU finisher in all seven races to date this fall. Frosh Dalic and Pollack generally have been among the Falcons' top runners, while Krueger and Carden each finished in the team's top-five in the most recent race, at Illinois, with Carden posting a season-low time of 19:03. Wells hopes that all of her runners on each team can run races approaching or bettering their personal-best times on Saturday.
"We are focusing on what we can do as a team. You can only control your own performance, so that is where our focus lies.
"I expect everyone to perform to the best of their ability at the MAC meet, to rise to the level of competition and represent themselves and BGSU like they have trained to all year."
